Ground Control Touring

Bobby first attempted to make contact with Tom Greenberg (Twiglet) at college, but no one really noticed Bobby until everyone had already graduated. He had, in all likelihood, been there since early ’09—a stowaway on Uncle Marth’s back chunk—soaking up all the sick milk he could stick his soft little hands into. When Tom finally did meet him face to face in the Spring of 2010, Bobby became nervous and got sick all over his little brown tap shoes and turned into a mist. He was naught but vapor for a whole month, but soon after that, they fell in together; Tom making tunes to accompany Bobby’s sad dances.

After a few shows put on for the local ghouls down at the rotary club, it was clear Bobby had talent, and Tom started making plans for a BIG SHOW. A group was to be assembled. He got together a few of his college buds that he knew played music. He put Martin Zimmermann (Chunk) on the cans, Paolo Menuez (Pillow) on thweedles, Julian Labat (Crumbles) on low-end, Roby Moulton (Moldy) on wisps and got Molly Sarle (of Mountain Man) to contribute vocally, at the request of Bobby himself. The resulting sound was a swollen lump of blooming, techni-color spores cast adrift on a warm bed of foam.

Unfortunately, it was all a bit too much for Bobby. On the night of the BIG SHOW, he once again got worked up and became sick all over Chunk. Bobby fled the stage as a mist. Despite Bobby’s sudden and unexpected departure, the band soldiered on with the performance. The crowd was hurt and angry at first (why had their beloved, lethargic, dancing wunderkind abandoned them?), but the heaving waves of sonorous tones soon spilled into their restless hearts. The recordings from the show caught the ear of Tim Putnam, who quickly signed the group to his label, Partisan Records.

Hot off the success of the BIG SHOW, the group decided to shack up together. They found a suitable home in western Massachusetts in the town of Montague; a ‘ranch’ style house nestled between a giant gravel pit and a wilderness preserve complete with a filled-in pool and busted sauna. In the crucible of isolation, and in preparation for their recording debut, the blooming lump of spores that they had cultivated for the BIG SHOW blossomed even further. The music was going well, but a name for the group still eluded them. For many months they struggled with this, but in the end decided to name it after their missing front man, Bobby, still assumed to be lurking as a dark mist within the music.